David Sedaris on 'Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls'

David Sedaris on home-ownership, gay marriage and parenting

April 21, 2013|By Kevin Nance

(Hugh Hamrick, Handout)

Can't afford to travel the world? Don't worry — David Sedaris does it for you. In "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls," his hilarious new collection of essays, America's best-selling literary funnyman hits the road. Various essays find him in Paris, London, Tokyo, Beijing, Athens, Amsterdam, Dublin and Melbourne, as well as New York, Chicago (where he lived for several years in the 1980s and '90s) and, at least in memory, his home state of North Carolina. Much of the humor springs from the way Americans — in particular, Sedaris himself — see the world, and vice versa.

This piece first ran in Printers Row Journal, delivered to Printers Row members with the Sunday Chicago Tribune and by digital edition via email. Click here to learn about joining Printers Row.

Along the way, Sedaris revisits old topics (family history, gay life, religion and politics) and explores some new ones, including taxidermy, colonoscopies and the penchant in China for expelling phlegm. Printers Row Journal caught up with the globe-trotting author, who lives in Europe, just as he was setting out for an extensive American book tour. Here's an edited transcript.

Q: You sure do travel a lot.

A: I just like to move, I suppose. I just got to the United States for this book tour, and I think I'm going to, like, 50 cities. And when I'm done with that, I'll think, "Where do I go now? My bags are packed. Let's go."

Q: You have homes in England and France, I take it?

A: It's embarrassing to say this, but yes, in France, London and West Sussex.

Q: Why is that embarrassing?

A: Well, it's a lot of homes. (Laughs.)

Q: You're the Mitt Romney of writers.

A: (Laughs.) I remember in the election before this one, they asked John McCain how many homes he had, and he didn't answer right away, and they sort of jumped on him. You know, they didn't give him time to answer! I can imagine him going, "Six ... seven ... eight ...." (Laughs.) I never thought I would sympathize with somebody who took a while to answer that question. The fact is, I've been lucky, because people have bought my books, and you've got to do something with the money. Plus, you know, you get tired of a place, so you go to another one and you think, "Oh, I forgot about this furniture! I forgot about these clothes that I own here!" It sounds embarrassingly luxurious.

Q: Gertrude Stein lived in Paris in part because she didn't much care for Oakland, where she was raised. There was "no there there," and so forth. Why did you choose the life of an expatriate?

A: Well, the plan was to go to Paris because I wanted to learn the language. My boyfriend Hugh and I would go to Normandy every summer, and I'd learn a little bit, but then when we went back the next summer, I'd have forgotten everything. I felt my neighbors thinking, "Aren't you ever going to progress?" Of course the best way to do that was to move there, which we did in 1998. We were going to go for a year, and one year led to another and another and, well, you know. But I wasn't angry at the United States. I don't really know anybody who left the U.S. because they were mad at it. All those people who said, "I'm going to leave if George Bush gets elected," not a one of them left.

Q: People said that about President Obama, too.

A: Yes, and really, where are they going to go?

Q: Iran, maybe?

A: Yeah, and take their guns with them. In this new book, I wanted to write something about guns, but I asked myself, "What do I have to say about guns that somebody else hasn't already said?" After all, you don't want to rehash things. And I thought, "The only thing I can offer is the perspective of somebody who lives in another country." Guns are one of those issues where people in other countries are always asking me, "What is up with you people and your damn guns?" Before, I didn't know how to answer that, but now I do. I tell people, "You need a semiautomatic weapon if you want to shoot up your television set properly." (Laughs.)

Q: Events have outdistanced some of these essays. You mention that Obama didn't support gay marriage, for example, but now he's changed his mind and the issue is before the Supreme Court. What do you make of that?

A: It'll be interesting to see what happens. In Europe, you know, it's such a nontroversy — is that a new word? A controversy that's not controversial? Spain was like, "No gay marriage, no gay marriage, no gay marriage! Gay marriage? Oh, OK." And then they just moved on.

Q: There have been some anti-gay marriage demonstrations in France, though.